There is no way to excuse not holding onto leads of 5-0 in multiple games in the last week, and especially blowing leads to Nats. No way. This team is a mockery of a playoff contender.
Bottom line is Omar needs to reject his absurd position a year ago that the Mets already had all the core players they needed, and they were only looking to add some peripheral role players. He must now admit that this team needs legitimate, established pitching in the worst possible way. If he starts next season with Pedro, Glav, and Duque as "the core", he is making a huge mistake in my opinion. We need young, non-injury-prone proven starting talent, and from what I've seen this year of Pelf and Humber (in AAA), I doubt they will be anything better than #4 guys all next season. I also can't place a lot of faith in Maine and Perez since both have yet to put together a consistent season. Without a top 5 pitcher I don't see this team doing much in the future.
Also, I'm sorry, I don't care what Willie's management style is: he needs to be visibly tearing some ass on this team right now. Even Glav said so the other day, that sometimes a team needs a real chewing to light a fire under them and get going. He needs to call out every pitcher on this team, and force them to prove that they belong in the majors. Even if it doesn't work it's better than sitting around and issuing stupid post-game comments like "We'll get 'em next time", or "This is championship baseball... The champagne will taste that much sweeter." Guess we'll have to ask the Phils if that's true.
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3 comments:
Nice to see billy wagner settling into his late season form as well.
Humber I can understand; the Mets shouldn't have been in a position requiring his use in the first place. Joe Smith has not been good since he fell apart earlier this year, but he's also a rookie. But Wagner is a vet, and is supposed to be a professional who can come in and get the job done. Certainly not give up two runs, to the Nats.
Those runs were huge. Would the bottom of the 9th have been different if the margin had been 1 instead of 3? Who knows? But the mental hill was definitely a lot steeper.
As for the rotation next year, I would love to see Pelf & Humber start getting their feet wet every 5th game. You want young and healthy pitching, let your young pitchers pitch. Come the end of the season, you'll have 4 guys with stamina to go 7 every night, so long as their command is on.
That said, there needs to be a front of the rotation guy, an anchor to count on. The Mets could save a lot of bank by sticking with Gotay at second, and using Humber and Pelf as theri #4 & #5 starters. They need to spend that bank to put Johan Santana in the Orange & Blue. Glavine's going to retire. Pedro might retire. We need Duque in the pen. I would like to see a rotation of:
Santana
Perez
Maine
Pelfrey
Humber
or at least:
Santana
Martinez
Perez
Maine
Pelfrey/Humber
Move Duque to the pen. If Sanchez isn't coming back, we need to go after a closer-caliber reliever as well.
A lot changes if Sanchez is both healthy and as good as he was in '06 (which was an exceptionally good year for him, but might be real and attributable to Peterson). The same is true of Pedro: will he stay healthy? Will he still want to pitch? The guy is always talking about how he might have to hang it up at anytime, so he's a long shot in my opinion.
I agree though on trying to save cash to spend big for Santana. However, we'll also need trade bait, since unfortunately Santana isn't a free agent until end of '08, and certainly will be traded by Twins if not re-signed.
Possible '08 lineup:
Reyes
Gotay
Wright
Beltran
Alou (?)
Delgado (?)
Milledge/Chavez/Gomez
Catcher
Pitcher
Questions:
1. Will Alou and Delgado be healthy enough and still good enough to keep?
2. Who will catch?
3. What do you do with Green?
4. Who would you be willing to trade to get #1 starting pitcher?
If we go with Fredo's rotation #1 below (no Pedro), I think we better have a top 2 offense in NL, b/c I think we're going to have to weather a lot of bad games (at least early on) from at least Pelf and Humber, and possibly Maine and Perez as well. Humber's ERA in AAA is not exactly encouraging that he's ready to take it to MLB level, but if he's your 5th guy and you have decent run support + pen that's fine.
I like rotation #2, and also Duque in pen. I would also like them to dump Heilman. I would love to see Pelf in the pen, but I realize that doing so will limit his ability to develop as a starter, so that's not a good idea.
I think despite Omar's suggestions otherwise, this team has a lot of holes to fill in '08 and I'm not sure how they do that. Our prospects have yet to really improve to the point where they can make a legitimate case to be a starter on a team whose goal is WS. Chavez and Milledge need to improve their BA and OBP, while Pelf needs more control. Gomez and Humber are younger, but also are a long ways away from really contributing IMO. This is unlike the Sox, whose rookies have been coming at and performing at MLB level (Pedroia, Ellsbury, Buchholz, Lester, Gabbard)
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